Craig Laughlin announced Friday that he will be returning to the Capitals’ broadcast booth on Sunday for the first time in over two months. Locker, the team’s long-time color commentator, had open-heart surgery to repair a bicuspid aortic valve and a blocked left anterior descending artery in January and has been recovering and rehabbing since then.
Ahead of the team’s game against the Buffalo Sabres, the Capitals’ social media asked the players and head coach Spencer Carbery to share some welcome-back messages before Locker’s big return.
Caps captain Alex Ovechkin, who has had Laughlin’s voice call games in all 20 seasons of his legendary career, kicked things off. “Locker, welcome back, my man,” Ovechkin said. “Miss you, see you.”
Another long-time Capital, John Carlson, was next up. “Welcome back, Locker, we missed you,” he said. “Wouldn’t have ever counted you out, bud.”
Carbery followed two of his locker room leaders, saying, “Oh my gosh, I cannot wait to see you, Locker. Looking forward to it.”
Tom Wilson added, “We miss you, and we’re excited to have you back.”
All in all, 18 Capitals players shared messages for Laughlin. Let’s hope they can get a big win for him against the Sabres.
Full transcript
Alex Ovechkin: Locker, welcome back, my man. Miss you, see you.
John Carlson: Welcome back, Locker, we missed you. Wouldn’t have ever counted you out, bud.
Spencer Carbery: Oh my gosh, I cannot wait to see you, Locker. Looking forward to it.
Dylan Strome: So happy you’re back Locker. Can’t wait to hear you on the call on Sunday.
Trevor van Riemsdyk: Locker, love seeing that pump-up video you made. Can’t wait to see you tomorrow.
Nic Dowd: Locker, we miss you buddy, hope you’re doing great. Can’t wait to see you, man.
Martin Fehervary: Well, happy to get you back, man.
Aliaksei Protas: Missed ya, welcome back.
Jakob Chychrun: Locker, welcome back, man. We’re so happy to have you here. We missed you. And, let’s get it going. We got a big push to end the season. We’re happy to have you with us.
Pierre-Luc Dubois: Welcome back. I’ll be nice to see you again around.
Taylor Raddysh: Welcome back, Locker. Happy to hear everything went well.
Brandon Duhaime: Welcome back, we’re excited to have ya.
Charlie Lindgren: Locker, we missed ya. Glad to hear you’re doing better. Can’t wait to see you.
Matt Roy: Welcome back, man. Happy to have ya.
Connor McMichael: Hey, Locker, happy to have you back. Can’t wait to hear your calls.
Logan Thompson: Happy you’re back, happy you’re doing okay, and excited to see you again.
Tom Wilson: We miss you, and we’re excited to have you back.
Lars Eller: Good to have you back, brother.
Alex Alexeyev: Welcome back, glad everything’s okay.
Capitals aim to halt modest slide in clash vs. Sabres
The Washington Capitals will look to get back on track after losing their last two games when they host the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday afternoon.
Washington (47-16-9, 103 points) dropped a 3-2 overtime decision to the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday and a 4-2 setback to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday. Prior to their two losses, the Capitals had won nine of 10 games.
They head into Sunday's contest looking to reclaim the top spot in the NHL after the Jets bumped them out of it following a win on Friday. The Capitals hold a game in hand on Winnipeg, which also will play on Sunday afternoon.
While a lot has gone right for Washington this season, the power play has been a struggle of late. The Capitals rank in the middle of the pack in the NHL on the man advantage, sitting 17th with a 21.5 percent success rate. They have come up empty-handed over the last 10 games, going 0-for-18.
"There's a lot that goes into it. Finishing is one of the parts of the power play, for sure, but there's a lot that goes into creating those opportunities," Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. "... It's all about the process, not the finish. OK, so how do you generate more looks? O-zone time, entries, secondary chances; there's all sorts of stuff that goes into it."
The Capitals last scored a power-play goal on March 5.
Looking for a spark, Carbery tweaked his second unit at practice Saturday, adding superstar captain Alex Ovechkin, who also works on the first unit, in place of Taylor Raddysh.
Ovechkin enters the game six goals shy of breaking Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky's NHL all-time goals record of 894.
The Sabres (30-36-6, 66 points) will look to bounce back after their three-game winning streak was snapped Saturday with a 7-4 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. Buffalo scored three in a row after trailing 2-0 and pulled to 6-4 with a short-handed goal before surrendering the final tally 29 seconds later.
"Totally disrespected the game," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "... It was like Christmas hockey. We handed gifts out for the first three goals, and you won't win (like that). You won't win on the road, and the road is something we've been working on. We had a lack of discipline, and we had lack of attention to detail when it comes to managing the puck early, and that really hurt us."
Much like the team, the season has been a struggle for winger Jack Quinn. But lately, the 23-year-old has shown sparks of the success he enjoyed in his rookie season in 2022-23 and an injury-plagued campaign last year.
Quinn had two goals and an assist against Philadelphia to extend his point streak to three games. He had three points -- all assists -- in his previous 11 games and hadn't scored a goal since Feb. 22.
"I think the confidence is what's been missing at times for me this year, and you can kind of see it coming now," Quinn said. "And it's translating into some production. I think the chemistry with (Ryan McLeod) and JJ (Peterka) has helped that a lot. Just keep building on it."
